• Equal Marriage – Questions people haven’t thought of #1

    Here’s one for church folk and any passing ethicist.

    Suppose a couple get a civil partnership and they then have a service of blessing in an Episcopal Church – rings, promises, nuptial mass, the whole enchilada, with lovely prayers drawn from the Scottish Episcopal marriage liturgy. (As happens).

    Supposing that is all done with and then suddenly the government come along and offer to make those who have civil partnerships married at the stroke of a pen.

    What is the moral difference between that and a straight couple getting married in church?

    [My interest in this question is to see whether the answers divide between people who say, “There’s no difference, therefore same-sex couples don’t need marriage” and those who say, “There’s no difference, so we should stop shilly-shallying about and wed same-sex couples on the same basis as every else.”]

    Furthermore, might couples expect to go through another ceremony to mark this change of status or not?

3 responses to “Recorded music in the liturgy”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Re: Recorded music in the liturgy
    Dennis Potter has an awful lot to answer for.

  2.  Avatar
    Kelvin

    Re: Recorded music in the liturgy
    After the death of George Harrison I was at a Sunday Eucharist where the Rector played a tape of My Sweet Lord and based his sermon on it. Don’t think it was really appreciated but I didn’t hear any complaints either.

  3.  Avatar
    Kelvin

    Re: Recorded music in the liturgy
    The only time I can remember this really working was when the Piscy College was at Coates Hall and after the Friday evening Eucharist the student who had been leading that week’s services, Kevin Bean, turned on a cassette of Boney-M singing Rivers of Babylon. I still recall the surprised grins on people’s faces and Gian Tellini practically skipping out of the chapel

    Ian Burdon
    (Coates Hall 1977-79)

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